Enjoying the Ride – Blues Lead the NHL

Following a 3-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks last night the St. Louis Blues moved into sole possession of first place in the entire NHL. The Blues have played two more games than the New York Rangers, but as of the posting of this article, the Blues lead the league with 93 points in 68 games – one point more than the Vancouver Canucks and two more than the Rangers.

The old saying is that when you win you should act like you’ve been there before. That may hold true for the athletes playing the sport but for us fans we have every right to celebrate like we’ve never been here before. In fact, the Blues haven’t been in this position in quite some time.

Last night’s win gave the Blues 93 points in 2011-12 with a record of 43-18-7. The win not only pushed the Blues into first place in the league but also tied the team’s total number of wins that they had during 2000-01 and 2001-02. Between the 2001-02 season and the present, the most wins in a season for the Blues was 41. Considering the Blues have a bunch of games left to play, the team should finish close to their franchise best 51 wins they had in 1999-2000.

Regular season success is awesome. There’s no point in hiding the fact the Blues have had a great year and have played their best hockey in 10+ years. However, we have come to the point that fans are all starting to look beyond the regular season and toward the playoffs. Regular season success is great, don’t get me wrong, but at this point we will all look back at how successful the 2011-12 season was based on how the Blues perform in the playoffs.

This might be a bit harsh given the fact the Blues have totally blown away all of our expectations but now that the Blues have consistently been near or at the top of the NHL expectations have grown and fans are expecting/hoping for a serious playoff run. Will the Blues deliver?